Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB Fan Kit Review

Installation and Performance

Overall, fitting the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB is fairly self-intuitive. The cabling is pretty limited and will only fit in the right ports so, even if you’re winging it, it’s honestly hard to go wrong. If you are new to fan kits, however, the manual provided with this is excellent giving you plenty of details on how to install them as well as further details on the switch configurations.

Functionality

To get the best out of the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB fans, it will require the installation of Thermaltake’s TT RGB Plus software. Yes, I know, I’m not much of a fan either of requiring software to control parts of my system build. One major positive though is that TT RGN Plus is undoubtedly one of the better choices around. It comes ready with a number of pre-set functions, but it also allows the user an incredibly high level of control which even comes down to manually setting, in patterns, each individual LEDs. And on the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB, there are 24 of them so the only limit really is your imagination!

One notable gripe I do have with the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB is that it requires a Molex connection to get power to the controller hub, and, by proxy, the fans. This is a complaint that I also cited with Thermaltake’s recent SWAFAN releases (full review here). I really fail to understand why they’ve chosen to use this over the far more common, modern, and relevant, SATA because, quite frankly, I don’t even have a Molex connection ready to go on my personal PC.

Oh sure, I have a fully modular PSU, so I could if I wanted. I don’t, however, have one ready to go and, with the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB requiring one, I find it, quite frankly, perplexing as to why they’re still using this. This is 2022, not 1996!

No, there is nothing wrong with Molex in principle. As above though, how many of you actually have a Molex power connection ready to go in your system?… It’s certainly something to consider before you excitedly unbox this only to find you’re going to have to go digging in your PSUs cable bag!

Fans In Action

Once hooked up, the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB fans are exceptionally impressive. – Moving the RGB lighting from the fans to the bezel works incredibly well with some exceptionally strong and vibrant colours.

With 24 LEDs all working together, this allows for some exceptionally smooth light transitions. It almost looks like coloured liquids being mixed and moved together. It is genuinely that sleek and undoubtedly represents some of the best RGB lighting effects I’ve ever seen in any kind of PC component.

Although quite a small touch, these little inserts to the side of the fans really do allow the colours to pop through adding a nice extra dimension to the overall aesthetics. As we’ve noted more than once during this review, although you can use these fans however you wish, this would give their use on AIO/custom-loop radiators a solid bit of extra visual flair.

As noted earlier as well, the RGB lighting effects are available on both the front and back of the fan ensuring you get the same visual effects regardless of how you choose to install these. If anything, it highlights how putting the RGB on the bezel for fans does, in many respects, make vastly more sense. – It is always somewhat disappointing when a traditional RGB fan (with the effects on the blade) look so muted when the exhaust side is visible.

No such problem with the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB though! – Nor, alternatively, with their SWAFAN design which you can check out here!

Performance

When reviewing fans, we attempt, as best as possible, to test the officially rated specifications to ensure that they operate, roughly speaking, within the suggested performance remits. – We will freely concede that our methodology for this testing is far from perfect, but we do think it important to at least check that on an indicative level if nothing else, the fans perform roughly as ‘advertised’.

Our usual methodology for this testing is setting the fans to 100% speed output and then measuring the airflow (CFM), fan rotational speed (RPM), and acoustic output (dBA). Again though, we are hardly in scientifically sterile conditions so we always suggest that our results should be taken as indicative, but not categorical.

Airflow Performance – STANDARD PUSH CONFIGURATION

• Rated Airflow – 53.75 CFM
• Recorded Airflow – 52.9 CFM

Fan Speed

• Maximum Rated – 2000 RPM
• Maximum Recorded – 1996 RPM

Acoustic Output

• Maximum Stated – 21.2 dBA
• Maximum Recorded – 22.4 dBA (adjusted to account for ambient noise)

As you can see from the results, the Thermaltake TOUGHFAN 12 RGB pretty much perfectly conformed to its official specifications. A particular highlight, however, was the noise output. Even with three fans running at nearly full tilt, these are impressively quiet!